Disclosure: I was invited to review Les Grand Bornand as part of a press trip.
Le Grand Bornand is an authentic French resort with a very French alpine feel. The wooden chalets dotted all around the slopes are a mix of new chalets and chalets that are a few hundred years old. Most tourists tend to be French, with a small amount from the UK. It does mean that not everyone will understand English, but that adds to the appeal of this beautiful resort.
There are plenty of accommodation options throughout the village. From apartments to hotels, you can easily find somewhere to stay. We stayed at Le Roc de Tours aparthotel, which was perfect for our needs. It’s right beside the chairlifts, making skiing very easy!
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Le Grand Bornand
Situated in the French Alps in the Haute Savoie region of France, around 40 minutes East from Annecy is Le Grand Bornand. The nearest airport is Geneva, which is just under an hour away. Transfers can be arranged to Le Grand Bornand or car hire is available at the airport.
The village of Le Grand Bornand is actually a village split into two halves. The upper part of the village is Chinaillon, which is at the bottom of the chair lifts up the mountains. The lower half, Le Grand Bornand Village is at the base of the Southern slopes with access via cable cars. The two parts of the village are connected by a frequent bus service ferrying snow sports enthusiasts between the villages.
The villages are largely made up of beautiful wooden chalets. From modern versions resting on concrete bases, to those that are several hundreds of years old resting on stone bases. For those visiting the village, a walk around the town is a must to visit some of the stunning old chalets. In Chinaillon there is also a sweet chapel from the 1600’s which is worth a visit. The stained glass windows inside are beautiful and the back drop of the chapel against the mountains and old chalets is gorgeous.
Ski Resort
In the winter most people visiting Le Grand Bornand are there for winter snow sports. This includes skiing, snowboarding, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing and walking on the trails. The whole village is set up for this and it’s easy to navigate.
Tourist Office
One of your first stops should definitely be the tourist office. We visited the Chinaillon tourist office and they were incredibly helpful and had all the information we needed. Most of the staff can also speak good English. Be warned that as a very French village with mostly French tourists not everyone speaks English – great for practising your French! You can pick up leaflets for trails and the ski runs at the tourist information, along with leaflets about other activities and events.
Lift Passes and Ski Lockers
if you intend to use the chairlifts and cable cars on the slopes around Le Grand Bornand then you will need to buy a lift pass. Lift passes can be bought from various locations throughout the village, including at some lower lifts stations and tourist information offices. Many people buy the passes from the offices below the main lifts of Floria, Charmieux and Le Rosay. We only visited one of these offices during our stay, below the Floria and Chatelet lifts. They open around 8.30am and are very helpful with buying lift passes. You can also buy lift passes online, which may be a little cheaper.
If you are staying in accommodation that does not provide a ski locker then you can also hire a ski locker at either the Charmieux ticket office in Chinaillon or Rosay Gondola in the village.
Le Grand Bornand Resort
Looking at the piste map with all the runs displayed can be quite deceiving. The map makes the ski area appear smaller than it actually is! Once you go up the slopes you will soon find there is a huge range of different runs and mountainside to visit. It can take a few different chair lifts to get to where you want to go. But it’s worth it when you want to follow the sun or try out some different routes. The lifts all have great views to enjoy whilst you wait to get to the next section to ski! Even though we mostly stuck to green runs it was amazing at the variety of slopes we could still visit. The different view points accessible for beginner skiers like us was fantastic!
Don’t miss the snowparks either, there was only one open when we visited (beside the Les Myrtilles run). It has jumps suitable for all stages, plus a giant airbag to practise jumps on safely. We attempted the easiest jumps on the way down to Vallee du Maroly.
Snowsport Lifts
The 6-person chair lift from Charmieux is the easiest for beginners to access. Simply because the chair lift is slow loading! Some of the other chairlifts can be quite fast and you need to be more confident at getting on to them! If the staff at the chair lift see that you are less confident or have kids they will help slow the chair lift manually too.
There are also various drag lifts to get to higher sections and 2 magic carpet lifts in the beginner areas. Toilets can be found in the various restaurants, the base of the main lift stations as well at several of the upper lift stations. There are plenty of restaurants throughout the mountain area, offering regional food as well as more basic kids menus. Alternatively you can eat a picnic at any of the areas with picnic benches, mostly found at view points.
Ski Instructors
We used ESF ski school for 3 2-hour long family lessons. As it had been 3 years since the last time any of us was on skis this seemed like a sensible option! Fortunately the ski instructor was excellent, spoke English and was fantastic at showing us how to ski more competently. However the kids clearly were much better than us after the lessons!
It was also a good way of exploring the slopes and finding out which were the best runs for our family and how to get around. Without a guide I would definitely recommend a map as it can seem complicated to begin with.
Ski and Snowboard Hire
Ski and snowboard hire can be found at various points throughout Le Grand Bornand. We personally hired our equipment from Intersport. They were very efficient at getting the right size boots, skis and helmets for everyone. There was no issue when we came back a day later to also get ski poles for the kids (we
weren’t sure if they were needed, but they are useful for poling in some flatter areas). Helmets aren’t included in the ski packages, but I’d definitely recommend paying a little extra to have helmets for the week too.
You can also find ski hire at several other points throughout the villages, including right outside the hotel we were staying in, Les Roc de Tours, at the bottom of the Floria chair lift.
Village Services
The village of Le Grand Bornand has everything you need for a great family holiday. There are plenty of restaurants in the village, including La Bouillotte on the Main Street of Chinaillon. They have delicious local food, including various vegetarian dishes and a kids menu.
You can find mini supermarkets in both Chinaillon and the village of Le Grand Bornand. In Chinaillon there is the popular Sherpa supermarket. Sherpa has lots of choice of the usual foods and includes a cheese and meat counter. There is also a farm shop just across and uphill from Intersport. In Le Grand Bornand Village there are more choices of supermarkets,, with another Sherpa mini market, Spar and a few other small food shops. There are delicatessens available with choices of locally made food and drink.
With over 2000 cows in the farms of the area you will find a lot of cheese! The regional cheese is Reblochon and I recommend you try this whilst staying in Le Grand Bornand.
Activities Available in Le Grand Bornand
Le Grand Bornand is not just for skiing and snowboarding! You can also hire snowshoes to walk in the snow along trails, try out Nordic skiing, paragliding from Mont Lachat, ski bikes or simply hiking. Kids may particularly enjoy hiring a sledge to go out on one of the sledging areas around the slopes too.
Alternatively families may also enjoy ice skating at the indoor ice rink (3-10 years old), a soft play in Chinaillon for under 11’s and swimming at La Clusaz aqua centre. There is also a cow art trail to follow in the village. It’s a rather fun way to spend some time outdoors together. In the year 2000 there were a total of 2000 cows and 2000 inhabitants of Le Grand Bornand. So to celebrate an international art display was created of 28 different sculptures and other artwork. You can pick up a trail leaflet at the tourist offices.
Is Le Grand Bornand a Good Family Resort?
We found Le Grand Bornand to be a very welcoming and friendly family resort. Although our French is limited we still managed to get around and find everything we needed. You can request English speaking ski instructors for you or your kids. Then there is also the possibility of using a crèche in the village if you have younger children who aren’t ready to be out skiing all day.
There were plenty of people having lessons, from young children to adults. We watched plenty of ski schools zip along the slopes. The staff were great at looking after them all. It was refreshing to see plenty of other adults getting lessons (and falling over!), not just us!
With plenty of family accommodation options, children’s menus widely available and ski hire, sledges and lessons all available for kids, it’s a fantastic family resort with a great French Alps vibe.